Career

1960s: Student films and Academy Award

In a beginning film course at
USC Cinema during 1969, Carpenter wrote and directed an 8-minute short film, Captain Voyeur. The film was rediscovered in the USC archives during 2011 and proved interesting because it revealed elements that would appear in his later film, Halloween (1978).[7]

The next year he collaborated with producer
John Longenecker as co-writer, film editor and music composer for The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970), which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. The short film was enlarged to
35mm, sixty prints were made, and the film was released theatrically by Universal Studios for two years in the United States and Canada.

1970s: From student films to theatrical releases

Carpenter's first major film as director, Dark Star (1974), was a science fiction comedy that he cowrote with
Dan O'Bannon (who later went on to write Alien, borrowing freely from much of Dark Star). The film reportedly cost only $60,000 and was difficult to make as both Carpenter and O'Bannon completed the film by multitasking, with Carpenter doing the musical score as well as the writing, producing and directing, while O'Bannon acted in the film and did the special effects (which caught the attention of
George Lucas who hired him to work with the special effects for the film Star Wars). Carpenter received praise for his ability to make low-budget films.[8]

Carpenter's next film was Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the films of
Howard Hawks, particularly Rio Bravo. As with Dark Star, Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the film's creation. He not only wrote, directed and scored it, but also edited the film using the pseudonym "John T. Chance" (the name of
John Wayne's character in Rio Bravo). Carpenter has said that he considers Assault on Precinct 13 to have been his first real film because it was the first film that he filmed on a schedule.[9] The film was the first time Carpenter worked with
Debra Hill, who played prominently in the making of some of Carpenter's most important films.

Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two main actors were
Austin Stoker, who had appeared previously in science fiction, disaster and
blaxploitation films, and
Darwin Joston, who had worked primarily for television and had once been Carpenter's next-door neighbor.[10]

The film received a critical reassessment in the United States, where it is now generally regarded as one of the best
exploitation films of the 1970s.[11]

Carpenter both wrote and directed the Lauren Hutton thriller Someone's Watching Me!. This television film is the tale of a single, working woman who, soon after arriving in L.A., discovers that she is being
stalked.

Halloween (1978) was a commercial success and helped develop the
slasher genre. Originally an idea suggested by producer
Irwin Yablans (titled The Babysitter Murders), who thought of a film about babysitters being menaced by a stalker, Carpenter took the idea and another suggestion from Yablans that it occur during Halloween and developed a story.[12] Carpenter said of the basic concept: "Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house film."[13] The film was written by Carpenter and Debra Hill with Carpenter admitting that the music was inspired by both
Dario Argento's Suspiria (which also influenced the film's slightly surreal color scheme) and
William Friedkin's The Exorcist.[13]

Carpenter again worked with a relatively small budget, $300,000.[14] The film grossed more than $65 million initially, making it one of the most successful
independent films of all time.[15]

Carpenter has described Halloween as: "True crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you."[16] The film has often been cited[by whom?] as an
allegory on the virtue of sexual purity and the danger of casual sex, although Carpenter has explained that this was not his intent: "It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I'm not. In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers."[12]

In addition to the film's critical and commercial success, Carpenter's self-composed "Halloween Theme" became recognizable apart from the film.[17]

During 1979, John Carpenter began what was to be the first of several collaborations with actor
Kurt Russell when he directed the television film Elvis.

Completing The Fog was an unusually difficult process for Carpenter. After viewing a rough cut of the film, he was dissatisfied with the result. For the only time in his filmmaking career, he had to devise a way to salvage a nearly finished film that did not meet his standards. In order to make the film more coherent and frightening, Carpenter filmed additional footage that included a number of new scenes.

Despite production problems and mostly negative critical reception, The Fog was another commercial success for Carpenter. The film was made on a budget of $1,000,000,[20] but it grossed over $21,000,000 in the United States alone. Carpenter has said that The Fog is not his favorite film, although he considers it a "minor horror classic".[19]

Although Carpenter's film used the same source material as the 1951 Howard Hawks film, The Thing from Another World, it is more faithful to the
John W. Campbell, Jr. novella, Who Goes There?, upon which both films were based. Moreover, unlike the Hawks film, The Thing was part of what Carpenter later called his "Apocalypse Trilogy," a trio of films (The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness) with bleak endings for the film's characters. Being a graphic, sinister
horror film,[22] it did not appeal to audiences during the summer of 1982, especially when E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which presented a much more lighthearted and family-friendly depiction of alien visitation, was released two weeks prior. In an interview, Carpenter stated that E.T.'s release could have been largely responsible for the film's disappointment.[23][24][25][26] As The Thing did not perform well commercially, it was Carpenter's first financial disappointment.

During filming of The Thing, Universal offered him the chance to direct Firestarter, based on the
novel by
Stephen King. Carpenter hired Bill Lancaster and Bill Phillips respectively to adapt the novel into different versions of the screenplay.
Carpenter had intended
Richard Dreyfuss as Andy McGee, but when The Thing was a financial disappointment, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester.[27] Carpenter's next film, Christine, was the 1983 adaptation of the Stephen King
novel of the same name. The story concerns a high-school nerd named Arnie Cunningham (
Keith Gordon) who buys a junked 1958
Plymouth Fury which turns out to have supernatural powers. As Cunningham restores and rebuilds the car, he becomes unnaturally obsessed with it, with deadly consequences. Christine did respectable business upon its release and was received well by critics; however, Carpenter has been quoted as saying he directed the film because it was the only thing offered to him at the time.[28]

Carpenter was also offered The Exorcist III during 1989, and met with writer
William Peter Blatty (who also authored the novel on which it was based, Legion) during the course of a week. However, the two disagreed about the film's climax and Carpenter refused the project. Blatty directed the film himself a year later. Carpenter said that although they argued about the ending, they had a mutual respect and talked about an interest they both shared: quantum physics.[32]

Carpenter was originally in consideration to be the director for the Halloween (1978) sequel project, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). Since
Jamie Lee Curtis, the main actress from the original and the sequel Halloween II (1981), wanted to reunite the cast and crew of the original film, she asked Carpenter to direct Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Carpenter agreed to direct the film, but his starting fee as director was $10 million. Carpenter rationalized this by believing the hefty fee was compensation for revenue he had never received from the original Halloween, a matter that was still a contention between Carpenter and Halloween producer
Moustapha Akkad even after twenty years. When Akkad balked at Carpenter's fee, Carpenter quit the project.
Steve Miner assumed directing of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which was a success and received generally favorable reviews.

2000s: Semi-retirement

Carpenter in September 2001

In 2001, the film Ghosts of Mars was released. During 2005 there were remakes of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog, the latter being produced by Carpenter himself, though in an interview he defined his involvement as, "I come in and say hello to everybody. Go home."

During 2007
Rob Zombie produced and directed Halloween, a re-imagining of Carpenter's 1978 film that resulted in a
sequel two years later.

Carpenter worked as director during 2005 for an episode of
Showtime'sMasters of Horror television series as one of the thirteen filmmakers involved in the first season. His episode, "
Cigarette Burns", received generally positive reviews, and positive reactions from Carpenter fans, many of whom regard it as on par with his earlier horror classics. He has since contributed another original episode for the show's second season entitled "
Pro-Life", about a young girl who is raped and impregnated by a demon and wants to have an abortion, but whose efforts are halted by her religious fanatic, gun-toting father and her three brothers.

Carpenter acted as executive producer, co-composer, and creative consultant on a new film in the Halloween film series, titled Halloween, and released in October 2018. The film acts as a direct sequel to Carpenter's original film, ignoring the continuity of all other previous films. It is his first direct involvement with the franchise since 1982's Halloween III: Season of the Witch.[44]

Techniques

With the exception of Someone's Watching Me!, Elvis, The Thing, Starman, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, and The Ward, he has scored all of his films (though some are collaborations), most famously the themes from Halloween and Assault on Precinct 13. His music is generally synthesized with accompaniment from piano and atmospherics.[citation needed]

Carpenter is an outspoken proponent of
widescreen filming, and all of his theatrical films (with the exception of Dark Star and The Ward) were filmed
anamorphic with a 2.35:1 or greater
aspect ratio. The Ward was filmed in
Super 35, the first time Carpenter has ever used that system. Carpenter has stated he feels that the
35mmPanavision anamorphic format is "the best movie system there is", preferring it to both
digital and
3D film.[45]

Carpenter was an early adopter of
synthesizers, since his film debut Dark Star, when he used a
EMS VCS3 synth. His soundtracks went on to influence electronic artists who followed,[48][49] but Carpenter himself admitted he had no particular interest in synthesizers other than that they provided a means to "sound big with just a keyboard". For many years he worked in partnership with musician
Alan Howarth, who would realize his vision by working on the more technical aspects of recording, allowing Carpenter to focus on writing the music.[46]

The renewed interest in John Carpenter's music thanks to the Death Waltz reissues and Lost Themes albums caused him to, for the first time ever, tour as a musician.[50] As of 2016, Carpenter was more involved with his music career than filmmaking, although he was involved in 2018's Halloween reboot.[51]

Carpenter has also contributed an opening narration for the retro-1980's
synthwave band
Gunship, for their track entitled "Tech Noir."[52] The narration is in line with Carpenter's earlier work on apocalyptic themes.

Carpenter has been the subject of the documentary film John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies, and
American Cinematheque's 2002 retrospective of his films. Moreover, during 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed Halloween to be "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the
National Film Registry.[53]

Personal life

Carpenter with
Bruce Robb (right) and son Cody Carpenter (middle) in 2005

Carpenter met his future wife, actress
Adrienne Barbeau, on the set of his 1978 television film Someone's Watching Me!. Carpenter was married to Barbeau from January 1, 1979, to 1984. During their marriage, Barbeau starred in The Fog, and also appeared in Escape from New York.[110] The couple had one son, John Cody Carpenter (born May 7, 1984).[111]

Carpenter has been married to producer Sandy King since 1990. King produced Carpenter's later films In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Vampires and Ghosts of Mars. She earlier had been the
script supervisor for his films Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live. On They Live she was also associate producer.[112] She co-created the comic book series Asylum, with which Carpenter is involved.[113]

Carpenter is also a known supporter of video games as a media and art form and has a particular liking for the Sonic the Hedgehog[114] and F.E.A.R. franchises, even offering himself as a spokesman and helping direct the cinematics for F.E.A.R. 3.[115] He has also expressed an interest in making a film based on Dead Space.[116]

In 2005, Titan Productions announced a new title in development for next-generation consoles. Psychopath, a first-person action game, was being made in collaboration with Carpenter. Titan has not yet announced a publisher, platform, or release date for the thriller. The only details that Titan has released about the game's story is that it revolves around a former CIA operative who is forced back into duty to stop a serial killer. Titan's aim in the industry was to push projects through multiple forms of media. In conjunction with the game, a film version of Psychopath was also in the works. Carpenter was to direct the film and the game's cutscenes and character design.[117][118] Since then, there has not been any further developments on the video game nor the film.